by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Malacca on Friday, 27.12.1985:
Lim Kit Siang cables Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed to call a special meeting of Parliament for him to honour his January pledge to table a White Paper on the $2.5 billion BMF loans scandal.
I have today cabled the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, reminding him of his public commitment when announcing the establishment, composition and terms of reference of the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee into the $2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance loans scandal in Hong Kong on January 11, 1984.
The Prime Minister had been very categorical that the government had nothing to hide in what he had described as a ‘heinous crime’, and he had promised the Malaysian people that a White Paper on the BMF scandal would be tabled in Parliament upon completion of the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee investigations.
In my cable to the Prime Minister today, I urged Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir to call a special meeting of Parliament in January for him to honour his pledge to table a White Paper on the $2.5 billion BMF loans scandal, and to allow Members of Parliament to debate the biggest financial and banking scandal in Malaysian history.
It is clear from the statements and the public stands of the former Prime Minister , Tun Hussein Onn, that if he is still the Prime Minister today, he would have no hesitation whatsoever in summoning a Parliamentary meeting to debate the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee report on the $2.5 billion BMF loans scandal.
I also told the Prime Minister that the BMF loans scandal and the government’s preparedness to give full public accountability, regardless of the number and position of top political leaders implicated in it, will be a test of the sincerity of the 2M government’s pledge of a ‘clean, efficient and trustworthy’ administration.
In the past few days, many Malaysians have expressed to me their disappointment over the increasingly weakening stand of UMNO Youth Leader, Anwar Ibrahim, that the Ahmad Nordim BMF Inquiry Report should be made public.
As a result of the backing down of Anwar Ibrahim and UMNO Youth over their previous stand demanding the immediate publication of the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee report, both MCA and Gerakan Youth leaders have also change their tune in demanding for the publication of the BMF final report.
Clearly, Anwar Ibrahim is allowing political expediency to dictate and override his political principles. Anwar Ibrahim has realized that a full public disclosure of the reports of the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee would be bad electorally for the UMNO n the next general elections expected to be held in less than two months, and he has decided to use his reputation to support the delay in the publication of the Ahmad Nordin BMF Inquiry Committee final report- at least until after the next general elections.
I want to warn Anwar Ibrahim that the withholding of the BMF Inquiry Committee final report would in fact be worse for the UMNO and the other Barisan Nasional component parties, for this would prove that the UMNO leaders and the Barisan Nasional parties have things to hide from the Malaysian public in the $2.5 billion BMF scandal. It would confirm wide spread public suspicion that a handful of BMF officials could not have approved $2.5 billion of Bank Bumiputra funds- which are in the final analysis taxpayers’ money- without the green-light and approval from top political leaders!